Protocol details

This page describes how you can use Your Freedom to play Second Life through a web proxy or a restrictive firewall.

Second Life uses HTTP and HTTPS to negotiate game parameters with the servers. But once the game has started, all is done via UDP.

Tests have shown that FreeCap does not make the game work properly; it might work with more advanced (i.e. low-layered) socksifiers. But in any way, Second Life is not playing well with non-transparent tunneling applications. It does work however with Your Freedom: you need to use the OpenVPN mode.

More detailed description

A more detailed description how to play Second Life through Your Freedom (written for the absolute beginner without a clue about Your Freedom) can be found on http://www.sl-through-a-proxy.com/.

OpenVPN mode

Package

You don't actually need a package to try but you'll need at least a Basic Package to play with reasonable performance (though this will not provide enough bandwidth in busy scenarios; you are better off with an Enhanced package), and no, you can't buy packages with L$, I'm afraid -- we thought about it but our tax adviser made strange noises when I asked him about value added tax for sales of a real-world item to private people from the EU represented by their Avatar in a virtual world acting on their behalf but under their full control; don't laugh, in Germany it even makes a difference whether you buy your sausage hot (19% VAT) or cold (7% vat). Well, now that the first Embassies have opened this issue may get resolved in the near future, but you'll probably have to pay toll when you bring the package into the real world to actually use it to go back into the virtual one. :-)

If you do not have a package and would like to try anyway, don't hesitate to test with FreeFreedom or use a "Try Before You Buy" package; if your Your Freedom account is too new to use this offer, just send us an email to info@your-freedom.net, tell us you would like to play Second Life, and we'll help you out. Bandwidth-wise, a Basic package should do but if you tend to get into a mess you might need an Enhanced package or things get sluggy (you lose a lot of packets). Please try before you buy!

OpenVPN needs to be installed

And yes, you need administrative privileges for this. This won't be a problem on your private PC but it might be a problem on a company computer. Please have a look at the Your Freedom User Guide available in the Documentation section about where to get OpenVPN and how to install it (but it's trivial: just run the exe).

You need a fairly new Your Freedom client

Version 20070123-01 and up will do, others won't. Best is to use the latest available client from the Download section.

OpenVPN must be enabled

You need to have OpenVPN ticked on the Ports panel, and the door needs to be wide open with the sun shining before you start the game. SOCKS and HTTP ports may be enabled but it's not necessary. You don't need to relay for others either.

What if OpenVPN mode does not come up?

You'll see hints in the messages panel and the door symbol won't open up wide. Please run Your Freedom in dump mode (see FAQ) and send us the dump, we'll find out why.

SolarStorm viewer

Customers have told us that another option is to use SolarStorm viewer to play Second Life. It lets you configure a proxy, i.e. you can configure "localhost" port 1080 as your SOCKS proxy and "localhost" port 8080 as your web proxy and make it run through YF. No OpenVPN mode required. Allegedly this is much faster and more smooth than using the standard SecondLife viewer and OpenVPN mode. We have not verified this but you might want to give it a try.

Which Your Freedom server?

The Second Life servers are based in the US, so choosing a US based Your Freedom server is a safe bet. ems01 and ems16 will do well. If you are based in Europe, choosing a European server might work as well for you (ems08 is a good choice), but if you are elsewhere in the world, try to use a US based server.